


The Bakers Daughter

by steviemarie



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: F/M, Reader Insert, childhood friends??, dumb outdated patriarchal practices, engagements, i'm sure i'll think of more tags later, semi-canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-27
Updated: 2014-10-27
Packaged: 2018-02-22 22:02:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2523305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steviemarie/pseuds/steviemarie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>[semi-canon setting, but no titans] </p><p>Now that you're of age, it's expected of you to take a husband. And it seems like the only person in your village who supports your own wants and dreams is never going to ask. </p><p>Written on request for someone on dA, backing it up here.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Bakers Daughter

**Author's Note:**

> In the process of eventually backing up all of my reader inserts here because dA delete everything and it's annoying and I want everything together. 
> 
> Did requests once, wrote this then. First attempt at writing Armin. If the person who requested it on dA happens to have an account here, let me know and I'll do the gift thing.

The smell of freshly baked bread poured out onto the streets of Shiganshina, luring the passers-by on their daily errands into the bakery that your family owned. Your bakery was almost always full of people, not that you were complaining about the wonderful business of course, but it did make you grateful that at the moment most of your work seemed to be centred around being in the kitchens and helping to prepare the range of breads and sweet treats that needed to be replenished at least once a day.

You were still relatively new to the bakery business and had only been working here for a few weeks now, since you came of age and had to leave the schoolhouse behind. Oh, how you missed the schoolhouse and going to it everyday. You were sure if you spoke up about this everyone around you would find you weird, because it was most peoples goals to get out of the schoolhouse and into the real world around the village, but you? You were the opposite. You hoped that one day you'd be able to return there but this time to teach. That was your big dream and your goal in life, though you knew that your father had to be a little disappointed you didn't intend to run the family bakery with your siblings, he and the rest of your family were very supportive of your wants and desires. 

You were also glad that you were working in the kitchens for another big reason – because coming of age didn't just mean that you left behind the schoolhouse to use your skills in work... it also meant that you were now of legal age to marry and that was something you weren't exactly thrilled about. It wasn't that you didn't want to begin the courtship that would lead to your inevitable marriage and children.. it was just that it needed to be with the right man. And though you'd gotten several requests in the past few weeks since you became of age, they were all the wrong kind of men. You wanted someone who would support you in your dreams, who would be your equal not your superior. 

That was why you were so happy and lucky to have such a supportive family, because your father was not willing to give your hand to just anyone and whenever someone came into the shop to talk to him about it, he would listen to what they had to say and ask them to return for an answer. He would then pass on whatever had happened to you and you inevitably told him to reject them. You were sure he was getting a little tired of it though, so you just wished that people would stop wasting their time. 

There had been seven boys now, seven boys who you knew from around the village or who had attended the schoolhouse at some point while you were still there and all seven of them had told your father a specific reason for wanting to be with you and that was your looks. That alone proved to you that they wouldn't be a good husband when the time came, because that was your one selling point to them, your beauty so they could show you off, or so that there was a higher chance of attractive children. Your brain, your personality, your aspirations never came into it, it was always simply that you were one of the most attractive girls in the village. You personally didn't see it, but that was what you were always told. And you never understood why girls would be jealous if it, because it was more of a hindrance than anything. 

You finished carefully placing steaming, fresh out of the oven loaves into a basket and picked them up, continuing to be careful as you carried them out of the door and onto the main shop floor. You caught your fathers eye and he gave you a grin before turning back to the customer he was serving and left you to walk across the small shop, greeting and smiling at the people who stopped to say hello to you. When you reached the display, you took out the old, empty basket and replaced it with the new one. It seemed like everyone in the village was in the shop today, because the goods seemed to be disappearing quicker than you could keep up with them. Back to the kitchen, back to baking more bread and checking on the sweet treats that were almost ready to come out. 

“Hello, _____.” You almost knocked the new loaves to the ground in shock as you stood up, because a familiar voice hit your ears and you weren't expecting it. You hadn't heard anyone else come in, neither had you seen them around your shop. You looked up with a smile as your ____ eyes hit blue and then green ones. 

“Armin. Eren.” You said, your smile widening as you greeted your friends. “What brings you into our humble bakery today?” Eren and Armin had both been people you'd met during your time at the schoolhouse, both were older than you and had before you did and these days Eren helped out his doctor father on his visits and Armin's job when he wasn't working part time at the library seemed to be saving Dr. Jaegar from his son. 

“Dad said I'd helped enough today,” Eren said, a little sadly. “And he sent me out to run errands for Mom. She wanted me to come and pick up one of your loaves, looks like we got here at just the right time.” He chuckled as the two boys watched you place Eren's loaf of bread into one of the brown bags and present it to him, so he could take it the counter and pay your father for it. 

As Eren thanked you and walked away, Armin turned to you. “Are you busy tonight?” He asked. You and Armin had been friends for quite some time and you often left the house after dinner to meet with him to look through books he'd found first at the schoolhouse and later, the library. Your village was located within a walled perimeter that it was rare for people to leave. Discussions about the world outside weren't allowed on orders of your king, but that didn't stop the two of you dreaming about the things like the oceans and the deserts you'd heard about, in private. It had been Armin who'd put these thoughts into your head after he'd told you that his parents had left the walls. They'd never returned. “I found a new book hidden at the back of the library...” 

You grinned with excitement. “I'm working here until four and then I have to help clean up and then I have to help my Mom prepare dinner and go over the little ones homework, but I should be able to step out for an hour at around the usual time... I'll meet you in the usual place?” 

Armin nodded. “I'll be there, of course.” 

You could have stood there all afternoon just to be around Armin, but you knew that as lenient as your father was, he would scold you for not getting back to work if you did, so with a heavy heart you gave Armin one last smile. “I have to get back to work, I'll see you then...” You turned to walk back into the kitchens to get back to baking and he watched you leave, before finding and joining Eren in the long queue of people. 

The two of them lazily chatted as they awaited their turn to pay for the bread, both of them wondering why the man in front of them – who they recognized as Auroro Bossard, someone who they knew from around the village and who was a couple of years older – had no baked goods in his hands and was seeming to have a lot of trouble actually standing still. Armin had to hold Eren back from around the second time he was accidentally stepped on by the older boys fidgeting. 

They found their answer when it was Bossard's turn at the counter and instead of asking about one of the cakes on display by the counter, he slammed his hands down onto it. “Mr. ____! I'd like to ask for your daughter's hand.”

Your father swallowed and looked at the man before him, before opening his mouth and spouting the words that were now familiar to him as Armin and Eren listened to what was going on. Eren turned to look at Armin who didn't look back, just stared straight at the scene in front of him. “Why should I agree to give you my daughter's hand? What can you offer her?”

“Your daughter is beautiful, sir!” Was Bossard's reply and Eren couldn't help but notice that Armin clenched his fist uncharacteristically. “And anyone would be lucky to be graced to be in the presence of her good looks. I work hard, I'm on board to take over my father's business within the next couple of years and then I'll be able to more than provide for her. In the meantime, we can live with my parents, sir.” 

Your father opened his mouth to spout off his usual speech about how he'd like Auroro to return the next day for his answer (though he already knew that you'd turn him down) but neither Eren or Armin heard this response because Armin turned on his heel and fought back through the people behind them and Eren, in his surprise, thrust his loaf into the hands of the nearest person to him before following him outside. 

“Are you okay?” He asked, as he got outside the store and saw his blonde friend leaning against the wall staring down at the ground beneath his feet.

“None of them really know her,” was Armin's response. His voice was calm, but Eren could tell that his friend was more than irritated. Realising that Bossard would be leaving the shop soon, he pushed himself off the wall and started to walk, Eren matching his pace. “It's always about the way she looks. Yes, _____ is beautiful but she has so much more to offer, she has her own mind and her own dreams and curiosities, she deserves so much more than becoming someone's prize.” 

Eren sighed. “Ask.” 

“What?”

“Ask.” Eren repeated. “Go back into the store and ask her father for her hand. He knows you, he likes you and he knows that she likes you...” 

Armin shook his head. “He wouldn't, I don't have enough to offer her, I'm the boy who's parents ran off over the wall, remember? Would you want your daughter to be associated with that? _____ deserves so much better. And I don't think she'd go for it anyway, she's told me about some of the men who've asked for her hand and they're a lot better off and a lot more attractive than me.” He let out a small sigh. “I'm supposed to meet her tonight.”

“Well, ask her how she'd feel about it when you do?” Eren asked. “Tell her that you won't be upset if she says no, but tell her that you're thinking about asking her Dad and see how she reacts to it...” 

Armin shook his head. “Can you meet her instead? Just tell her that I'm not feeling well, because I don't feel like seeing her tonight.” he paused. “And don't you dare mention any of this to her.” 

Eren sighed. “Will you at least give it some serious thought?”

Armin didn't reply.

~*~*~*~

 

“Here, let me do that.” You looked up from trying to clean out one of the bigger ovens to see your father standing there. You'd stopped baking an hour previous and reduced the price of the leftover goods in preparations for closing the shop for the night. He'd obviously closed in the time you'd been cleaning. You stood back and handed him the cloth and turned to finish washing down the counters where the dough was prepared instead. “Auroro Bossard came into the shop earlier...” 

You sighed. “No.” 

Your father chuckled lightly. “He could have come looking for a job for all you know, you didn't let me finish my sentence.” 

You looked up from what you were doing. “Did he ask for a job?” 

“No.” 

“Then I stand by my no,” you retorted. “Let me guess, the reasoning was my looks... right?” 

“Right.” Your Dad replied. The two of you fell silent as you continued to clean up the kitchen. You thought the subject had been dropped, until your father cleared his throat. “I think we need to talk, _____.” He swallowed. “You know that all we want is the best for you, don't you? But... if you keep turning down all these proposals then people are going to start talking and they're going to stop asking you...” 

“I don't care,” you retorted. “If those are the kind of people who are asking me, then I'd rather they didn't ask. I want to marry someone who sees me for something more than just a pretty face.”

“Like Armin?”

You dropped your cloth. “What?” 

“Are you rejecting everyone else because you're waiting for Armin to ask?”

He had you there, you'd be lying if you told him you'd never considered the possibility of marrying Armin. You knew that he saw you as more than just someone who was pretty and accepted you for all that you were. In a perfect world, Armin would have been the first one to ask. But the world wasn't perfect and you'd accepted that he was unlikely to ask since before you'd actually come of age. “He won't ask,” you told your father. “Mikasa is almost seventeen now, I think that once she is, he'll ask Dr. Jaegar for her hand.” You said, sadly. “I just want someone to want me for reasons other than the possibility of attractive children.” 

“So you're definitely sure that you don't want to marry Auroro Bossard?” He asked. 

“Yes,” you nodded. “I'm sure.” 

Your father fell silent again and you thought the conversation was once again over. “_____...? Just... maybe you should try being a little less picky?” 

You blanched and looked up at him, ready to open your mouth and tell him that you had every right to be picky and he'd been the one to tell you that he wouldn't give you away to someone you weren't comfortable with, but from the forlorn look on his face you realised... he was worried for you. Instead you sighed. “I'll try.” 

He gave you a small smile. “That's all I ask.” 

*~*~*~*

“I had a look through the book you brought home last night,” Armin's Grandfather informed him the next morning as he stirred sugar into his tea while the two of them were sitting down for breakfast. “I'm quite surprised you didn't take it out last night to go and show _____.” He paused. “Is everything okay?”

Before Armin even had a chance to open his mouth and respond, the back door to the Arlert house flew open and in wondered Eren, joining them at the table and helping himself to a slice of toast. Neither Armin or his Grandfather batted an eyelid, because this was an almost daily occurrence. “Morning, what are we talking about?”

Armin again opened his mouth to tell Eren they hadn't been talking about anything, but again before he could even form the words his Grandfather got out: “_____.” 

“Oh _____. She seemed pretty sad when I told her you weren't going to meet her last night,” Eren shrugged. “Have you given any more thought to the courtship thing?”

And in that moment, Armin could have killed him because his Grandfather's eyes just lit up. “You're going to ask for _____'s hand?” He said, excitement on his voice, but then again, he had always been very fond of you.

“No,” Armin sighed. “Eren thinks I should, but she's had a lot of offers. She got another one while we were in the bakery yesterday.” He looked down at his breakfast. 

“And she told me she turned it down,” Eren snorted. “She's turned down every offer that she's had.” 

“And that's precisely why I'm not asking,” Armin said softly. “A lot of the men who've asked her are so much better than I am.”

“You're selling yourself short,” Eren complained. “You've got nothing to loose, I'm sure she'd rather you ask than half of these idiots who barely know her who've been asking.” 

“I've our friendship to lose,” Armin addressed more to his food than to his best friend.

“And you're going to lose that anyway, whether you ask or not, because if you keep putting it off then someone else is going to ask and she's just going to end up saying yes.” 

“Eren's right,” his Grandfather spoke. “Whoever ends up courting her probably isn't going to approve of her going off and reading books with another man.” 

His Grandfather's words felt like a punch to the stomach, he couldn't imagine life without you in it but very soon that was most likely going to become reality. Instead of address his Grandfather though, he looked up and his blue eyes found Eren's green ones. “If you're so eager to see her courting, why don't you ask?

Eren shook his head. “I'm maybe waiting for Annie Leonhardt to become of age and besides,” he smirked. “I'm not in love with her, you are. And anyway, you told me you'd at least think about it.” 

“Well, I'm still thinking about it.” 

Eren bit into a crust. “Don't take too long, I heard Marlowe Freudenberg is thinking of asking her and that family is incredibly well off, so her parents might try and get her to accept on that.” 

Armin shook his head. “They wouldn't do that.”

Eren shrugged. “Am I walking you to work today?”

Armin looked at the time and moved to stand up, only for his Grandfather to raise a hand at him to instruct him to stop in his tracks. “Actually Eren, I'd like to talk to Armin before he leaves, so can you go by yourself today?”

While he looked taken aback, Eren quickly composed himself. “Sure thing Mr Arlert, I'll see you later, Armin.” 

Once the door had slammed shut behind him, all of his Grandfather's attention was on Armin. “Is what Eren said true?”

“About a lot of people asking for her hand? Yes.”

His Grandfather shook his head. “Are you in love with _____?” Armin didn't have to reply, just one look up at his Grandfather had the elderly man drawing in breath. “I see.” He raised himself from the table and walked across the room, Armin heard a drawer open and when his Grandfather got back, a small wooden box was placed in front of him.

“What's this?” He asked, opening the lid to see a simple ring lying inside.

“This was your Grandmother's and now I'm passing it onto you,” the old man told him. “I'm not telling you what you should do, because I have faith in you that you'll do what you think is right for you. And whether you so choose to use it now or not, I'll support you.” 

*~*~*~*

Today's special at the bakery was Gingerbread Men and if you weren't so ladylike, you probably would have cursed out your Father for picking them. Yes, they were delicious but they were also difficult to make and of course because of the high standards that were expected in the bakery, they had to be absolutely perfect. 

It was such a hot day today as well, so you had the door propped open a tiny bit to get in some air from the front of the shop as you set about icing faces and clothes onto a cooling rack of your men. You could hear snippets of your Father's conversations with his customers, mostly they were dull and about the weather, but it helped pass the time at least.

And thankfully, so far nobody had asked for your hand.

You gathered up your tray of freshly iced Gingerbread Men and were about to walk them out onto the shop floor when you stopped, from your position by the slightly open door you could see the queue of people quite clearly and behind the customer currently being served stood... Armin? 

Armin who'd gotten Eren to come and meet you last night to cancel on you. He didn't have any bread or anything either, unlike the other customers, he was just there. Was he looking for you? Maybe to apologize for being weird about last night? 

The man that was being served bid good day and left, leaving Armin to step forward. You stood there, watching intently and listening curiously to what was going on. “Mr ____,” You couldn't help but notice that his voice was at least two octaves higher than normal. “I would like to ask you for your daughters hand.” 

Your breath caught in your throat as your heartbeat sped up, that was the last thing you'd expected. You'd been hopeful, of course you'd been hopefully but... your father looked quite taken aback by it too. “Why should I agree to give you my daughter's hand?” He asked. “What can you offer her?” 

“Mr. ____, your daughter is beautiful...” your heart sank, he was the last person you'd expected that from. “...but that isn't my reason for wanting to be with her. Your daughter is kind and warm and I know that I could treat her with the equal kindness and warmth that she shows others. Your daughter has her own hopes and dreams and I want nothing more than to help her realize them and support her if they don't work out. Your daughter is smart and funny and talented and I appreciate her for all she is and I think she deserves someone who appreciates her for all she is.” Tears welled in your eyes. “Your daughter deserves the stars and the sun and the moon and I know that I can't really give her those things, but I'd at least like to try. Your daughter is wonderful and I love her.” 

You threw the tray of gingerbread down onto the nearest counter, ripped off your apron and stumbled onto the shop floor, ignoring the alarmed cries that emitted from your mother who'd been busy working at the other end of the kitchen and hadn't been witness to what you are. 

Your father opened his mouth to respond to Armin, you didn't know if it would be the usual spiel he'd given everyone else, or if he'd have flat out said yes, but he saw you and he smiled. “I think you might be about to get your answer.” he said, calmly. 

Armin's head turned to look in the direction your Dad's eyes pointed and his cheeks flushed an angry pink. “_____!” 

You walked towards him, adrenaline rushing through your veins, your heart beating faster than it ever had before. “I heard everything, Armin!” you told him, smiling as he flushed even pinker (that was possible?). “I love you too, so to give you my hand would be a dream come true.” 

“...Are you sure? You really want to give your hand to me?”

“Yes!” You nodded.

“About bloody time,” you heard your father's voice mumble behind you. You, however, chose to ignore him because Armin had reached into his pocket and procured a ring. 

“Will you accept this as a sign of our betrothal?”

You nodded again, preferring your hand to him so that he could slip it onto your finger. You bit down on your lip as you watched him slide the band up your ring finger, it was a perfect fit. You looked down at it with a grin on your face, Armin was to be yours and you were to be Armin's forever. Feeling brave, you looked up at him. “Armin, may I give you a token to celebrate our betrothal?” 

He wrinkled his nose in confusion in the most adorable way. “Uh?”

You leant in to him and pressed your lips to his, in a chaste kiss.

The first kiss of many to come.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on Tumblr, prompt me or something: http://steviebutt.tumblr.com/


End file.
